multiplayer box product vs steam and licensing

[Rebrecs]

Hi,

I understand there are forums for multiplayer, in particular on the steam site, however there is not much traffic there so I will hazard posting my question here. 

 

I have a goal which is to run multiplayer FSX on local LAN. I am hoping to host a session from my server and use several laptops for (same local LAN) to join the session. The way it fails leads me to believe I will need either a) more FSX licenses, or b) more steam accounts, or both. But which one? 

 

What I observe

There is a restriction of "one running instance of FSX." 

Neither steam, nor FSX care how many systems I load steam/FSX  on.

When starting FSX-mutiplayer from the steam Library menu on my server, things are ok. It begins writing for players to join.

When starting FSX on a second machine from the steam Library menu, steam advises me "FSX is already running on the server, and offers me a chance to end the server instance and start FSX on this machine. Clearly, steam is enforcing the "one-at-a-time" restriction.

 

Questions

Does steam itself care? Or is it representing FSX's interests, i.e. enforcing an FSX restriction?

Does each player laptop need its own steam account with a purchased copy of FSX installed? 

 

I think I'm on the right track, but If these are the wrong questions, what should I be asking ?

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Rebrecs said:

Does each player laptop need its own steam account with a purchased copy of FSX installed? 

My understanding is Yes. Each laptop would have and be running its own FSX.

Connecting via a lan for multiplayer should work, but not positive on that.

Wish you luck.

[lnuss]

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Connecting via a lan for multiplayer should work, but not positive on that.

Wish you luck.

Yes it does work, but as stated above it needs multiple licenses. In fact, using the LAN mode allows you to even go out on the internet and connect vi IP address directly to another player. Actually if the host is available on the internet, many people (the number is restricted by the host's configuration) can connect direct via IP address. In fact, this article, among other things,  discusses how a friend and I did exactly that for over 20 years:

[loki]

11 hours ago, Rebrecs said:

Does steam itself care? Or is it representing FSX's interests, i.e. enforcing an FSX restriction?

The licensing restrictions on games sold through Steam are determined by the game's developer/publisher, so in this case Steam is enforcing what Dovetail Games originally setup for FSX Steam Edition (now inherited by Microsoft when they basically the licence back). Steam allows the developer or publisher to put as little or as much DRM around their games as they want to.

 

11 hours ago, Rebrecs said:

Does each player laptop need its own steam account with a purchased copy of FSX installed?

Yes, each computer requires its own licensed copy of FSX. It was nice in years past when the likes of Warcraft and Starcraft allowed you to install 2-3 additional copies for purely LAN games, but I'm not sure sure any major game studio does that anymore. Somewhat mitigating the cost is that FSX often goes on sale on Steam for as low as $5 or so, if you can wait for a sale.